http://theshopper.com/column_11.909-The_View_From_the_Balcony
Doing my due diligence, the site mentioned above, shows that this idea did not originate with me. I first heard of the view from the balcony from pastors who work with congregations during the transition from one long term pastorate to the hoped for next long term pastorate.
The phrase itself speaks to gaining a wider perspective on a given situation. The situation can range from a personal relationship to global issues. It’s the global issues that are getting to me these days.
It’s difficult to see the world from the balcony. The International Space Station (ISS) could be viewed as our world’s balcony. An astronaut can catch a glimpse that there is only one place that supports life as we know it. It’s also a place that can only be maintained by the inhabitants of Earth willing to do the work and support it.
From that balcony we see planet that is our one and only home. In that balcony we see humans from different places working together in close quarters. Looking away from earth there are the distant lights of our galaxy and others. Unlike church balconies, the ISS lacks a ceiling, other than its hull. Depending on one’s orientation, the ceiling or overhead becomes the deck or the bulkhead. The portals remain portals (windows).
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?channel=iss#public
What will be our response to these things? Will we cooperate so that the Earth remains hospitable to all the species or will we file off into our respective ranks, arm up and defend our places according to the ideologies that lead to conflict and war?
The talk of tactical nuclear bombs is a deadly reminder that humans can rationalize the irrational.
In Spanish at times we say “What is not yours or mine belongs to no one.” I do not agree, all that is belongs to all of us and is “the commons.” We have a duty and responsibility for the whole, what does not belong to you or me is our stewardship and humans are reluctant stewards. It is a pity for our collective responsibility is our legacy and we leave little if we care less for now and think not of tomorrow and thus shrug off the duty to our own humanity. Circular thinking has its place in philosophy when the caretaker of the garden only uses and takes, not cultivating that which feeds them. Pax Michael